In a life cut tragically short at age 24, Martha Mansfield nevertheless stood out by virtue of her self-belief and ambition, resulting in a stage career, a Ziegfeld Girl, and appearances in several silent movies. Oh, and her beauty.
Incidentally, if you read her bio at the above link, does her death not strike you as… suspicious?
In the 1930s, Dorothy Flood was considered one of the most beautiful faces in show business — but hey, don’t take my word for it; judge for yourselves:
Then, after having spent her teenage years on Broadway, appearing in shows with established stars like Ruby Keeler, she became a Ziegfeld Girl — and met Ziegfeld’s “house” photographer, Alfred Cheney Johnson… and the rest became history.
Johnson is said to have remarked that Dorothy Flood was the most beautiful woman he’d ever photographed — and considering who and how many women he’d snapped, that’s no small compliment.
Gorgeous.
One of those 1940s babes, I think Ramsay Ames had an amazing ability to look like other stars of the day such as Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner* and so on. Or maybe they just all looked alike according to the casting standards of the day. Whatever, Ramsay’s gorgeous.
Classic, indeed.
She was once described as having “a face like Grace Kelly and a body like Marilyn Monroe”. I wouldn’t go as far as that, but Rosemarie Bowe was something else.
Unusually for Hollywood, she was married to only one man — Robert Stack — and she pretty much quit acting when the two kids came along, only going back once they had grown.
Lovely.
We’ve already looked at her sister, but Constance Bennett was nothing to sneeze at, either:
And she aged pretty nicely, too. Here she is at 55, five years before her death:
She recently won some award for her acting career, and brushed it off as “just luck”.
Have mercy.